Clinton and Mexican government move to gut workplace safety

[The following information is taken from the Maquiladora Health & Safety
Support Network Newsletter #2, published in email form on June 11, 1997.
The MHSSN is a volunteer effort by 300 occupational health and safety
professionals who provide technical assistance and on-site instruction
regarding workplace hazards in the over 3,500 maquiladoras (foreign-owned
assembly plants) along the U.S.-Mexico border. To subscribe to the
newsletter, send a message to editor Peter Dillard at ishmaelMD@aol.com. To
find out how to volunteer with the network, contact coordinator Garrett
Brown at gdbrown@igc.apc.org.]

For anyone who cares about workers' health and safety on the U.S.-Mexico
border (and in the countries on either side), two recent developments are
cause for great concern. The reputation for professionalism and ethical
behavior of occupational health professions, especially that of industrial
hygiene, is also at stake.

On January 21, 1997, the Mexican government promulgated a new "Federal
Regulation on Workplace Safety and Health" to replace its 1978 predecessor.
While the new law has some positive aspects, the most notable change is the
privatization of government enforcement and regulation of occupational
health and safety in Mexico.

The government has decided to permit privately-owned "verification units" to
conduct workplace inspections and, upon "verification of compliance" with
regulations, to exempt the inspected companies from further inspections and
fines by the government's Secretaria del Trabajo y Prevision Social (STPS -
Department of Labor and Social Welfare). The Mexican government has
apparently given up on improving the professionalism and technical capacity
of STPS inspectors, who have a widespread reputation for ineffectiveness and
corruption. Numerous private companies, including US-owned insurance
companies and consulting firms, have submitted applications to be certified
by the STPS as official "verification units."

North of the border, both Republican "OSHA reformers" and Clintonian
"government re-inventors" have proposed allowing "independent, third-party
certification" by private consultants which would also lead, with a positive
"certification," to exemption from OSHA inspections and other benefits for
the inspected employers. This privatization plan has not yet been enacted
(unlike Mexico), but is under serious consideration in Washington and has
garnered the support of several professional associations whose membership
is heavily drawn from private consulting firms.

Consultants hired and paid by corporations to conduct "certification
inspections" are anything but "independent third parties;" in fact, these
firms are entirely dependent on corporate clients for their current and
future livelihoods. Any consulting firm which gains a reputation for being
a "stickler" for accurately assessing corporate compliance (which might lead
to loss of certification and denial of exemptions to its clients) risks
seeing its client base shrink into oblivion. In order to maintain their
clients, "independent" consultants will be under tremendous pressure to
minimize, overlook or simply ignore workplace hazards.

In addition to the real danger of "certifying" unsafe conditions and work
practices as "in compliance," the obvious conflict-of-interest inherent in
the proposed third-party certifications threatens to taint and sully the
reputations and ethical standing of the inspecting professionals. "Third
party IH consultant" may well end up with "company doctor" as titles of
professionals who place the welfare of their corporate clients above that of
the workers and patients their professions were designed to protect.

The Mexican law is already approved and in the implementation process. The
law merits close examination to see whether it does more for workers' health
and safety in Mexico than simply line the pockets of politically-connected
companies who will win government approval as "verification units." The
changes in the U.S. are under discussion and everyone concerned with
occupational health in North America should be part of the discussions
occurring in Washington and inside many professional organizations.

In any case, these developments reaffirm the importance of efforts like
those of the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network to provide
information and assistance to those to whom workers' health and safety is of
primary importance: the workers themselves. Although the Network's efforts
are very modest in scale at present, the importance of volunteers' donation
of expertise, technical assistance, training instruction and other forms of
support, should not be underestimated. All the more so in the context of
for-profit privatization of government regulatory enforcement throughout
North America.

With this in mind, please remember that there are many roles for Network
volunteers who don't happen to live on the U.S.-Mexico border, or who don't
speak Spanish. So if you have an idea or suggestion for the Network, or for
how your skills might best be utilized, please do not hesitate to contact
Garrett Brown at gdbrown@igc.apc.org or 510-558-1014. There's plenty of
work to do and the door is wide open for new ideas, energy and projects.

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